Elders Always Ready for Duty—No Salaried Preachers in the Church—No Compulsion in the Work of the Elders—The Liberty of Law—Sin Brings Its Penalties, Righteousness a Sure Reward—Assumption of Divine Authority—Restoration of the Ancient Priesthood—Religion in Politics—The Secret Ballot—The One-Man-Power—The Liquor Traffic—Civil and Religious Freedom for All—The Effects of this Work on the World

We always feel it our duty when called upon to undertake any task
which may be imposed upon us by our brethren in authority in the
Church, no matter how unexpected it may be to us, or how much we may
shrink from the duty we are called upon to perform. Brother Goss, who
has just spoken to us, at the call of the servant of God, went to his
native land to preach the Gospel. Every other Elder in the Church
holds himself ready—that is, if he is in the line of his duty—to
respond to a similar call; also if required to do so to officiate at
home.

We have no paid ministry in this Church, no hired clergy either to
preach at home or to go out as missionaries; but every man in the
Church who has received a testimony of the truth, and a portion of the
Holy Priesthood—which is generally diffused among the male members of
the Church—stands ready to perform any duty in connection with his
calling in the ministry. I am called upon this after-noon to speak to
this congregation, and I respond in this spirit, the spirit in which
our brethren go abroad to preach the Gospel, or stay at home and
preach it, or go to some distant part of the Territory and help to
colonize it, or to perform any other work that is necessary for the
general good, for the building up of the Church of Christ, and for the
benefit of the people belonging to that Church who have been gathered
from various nations.

It is supposed by a great many people, that there is a spirit of
tyranny and oppression existing in this Church, wielded by a few men,
or concentrated in one man who stands at the head, by which the people
are coerced into certain lines of action. It is supposed that our
brethren who are called upon at our conferences to go to various parts
of the world in the interest of the Church, act under this compulsion.
Now, this is a very great mistake. It seems difficult to convince
people who are not of our faith that there is not some coercive power
or organ-ization among the Latter-day Saints by which people
are obliged to do this, that, or the other. They have not learned the
secret of the power that exists in this organization. They could find
it out if they would investigate, but it is very difficult indeed to
get people who do not believe as we do to look at this thing with any
degree of impartiality. They are so prejudiced against it. They think
that it must be wrong to start with, and hence do not look into it in
the way they should if they want to find out the truth. Now, the
spirit that actuates the Latter-day Saints has been manifested in the
remarks of Brother Goss, who has just returned from a mission to his
native land. He did not come to Utah to find out if this thing called
“Mormonism,” was true or not. He found that out in his own native
land. He heard the principles of the Gospel, and was led to believe
them, and believing them he was baptized into the Church; hands were
laid upon him by the Elders, and he received the Holy Ghost, which
gave him a testimony that the work was true. That is what moves the
people to come here from all parts of the world. So with the Elders
who are called upon at conference, or at other times by the presiding
authorities of the Church, and sustained by the vote of the people, to
perform any labor or mission of a public character; they are ready at
once, and they start to do it willingly and cheerfully—although
sometimes they shrink very much from the task before them—because they
know the call is right; they know they are engaged in a great and
glorious work; they have a testimony within themselves that it is
true, and that it has come from God. They have a perfect assurance—a
knowledge they call it. Some people may dispute technically as to
whether it is knowledge or not, but it is knowledge to them. They are
as sure that it is true, and that it is divine, as that they are alive.
That is pretty near to knowledge if it is not exact knowledge; and
because of this they are ready to perform any work at home, or to take
their grip-sacks in their hands and start out abroad at their own
expense. They receive no salary. They do not expect to gain any
earthly reward, but they are of the firm conviction that it is their
bounden duty to help their fellow men to come to the same knowledge as
they have arrived at themselves. And they are not only willing to do
this, but if it is a temporal labor that they are called upon to
perform, if they have the spirit of their calling and duty, they are
just as willing to perform that temporal duty as to act in a spiritual
capacity. Are they obliged to do this? No. They act in the spirit of
self-sacrifice, trying to do good because they feel under obligation,
as servants of God, to do anything they can to help build up this
great latter-day work, which God has commenced in the earth.

Some people say they cannot understand how it is that these Latter-day
Saints are so united, unless they are held together by some secret
bond or some kind of tyranny. They cannot understand how it is that
when the leaders of the people speak, the people are willing to move
in a body, with scarcely a dissenting voice, unless it is that they
are terrorized or coerced by some power that is not known on the
outside. Now, all the bondage and terrorism that exist in this church
is the terrorism and bondage—if such a thing can be—of conscience. The
Latter-day Saints not only firmly believe in this work, but have re-ceived a spiritual influence which has given them an inward
testimony or knowledge that this work is of God. They have no doubt,
no dubiety, they know it is true. Hence, when any movement is
necessary for the building up of the great work of God, which they
know to be true, they feel it is their duty to respond. That is all
the bondage there is; that is all the terrorism there is. We have in
this Church and in this Territory, perfect liberty. The Gospel is the
“perfect law of liberty;” but it is the liberty which is confined to
that which is right. There is no true liberty outside the bounds of
wholesome law. When we act outside the limits of proper law, and claim
that to be liberty, it is not liberty, it is license, and it is
injurious to the individual and to the mass. If this people called
Latter-day Saints obey any instructions that they may receive from the
brethren who are appointed to lead them, they do so in the spirit of
liberty. They do not do it because they choose to do it. They do it
because they are willing to do it. They do not perform the duty
because they are obliged to do it, because of any coercive power
exercised over them, or because they will be called upon to submit to
any penalty; but they do it because they please to do it, and they
please to do it because it is right. I admit that sometimes they may
do things which seem at first to be irksome. They could refuse; but
they feel that if they do refuse they will suffer loss. In what way?
Their religion teaches them that every good thing that they do is
bound to bring its reward, and that every evil thing which they do is
sure to bring its punishment, either in this world or in the world to
come; that is, that sin inevitably brings its penalty, and that
right-eousness certainly brings reward. Therefore, if a Latter-day
Saint is called upon to perform anything in connection with this which
he feels it is his duty to do, and he neglects that duty, he expects
at some time to be punished or suffer loss for that neglect.

Our organization is a very glorious one. It is a perfect
organization—perfect—because it is divine. It was not made by man. It
was not originated by Joseph Smith, or by any of his associates. It
came down from above, direct from the eternal worlds. It was not taken
out of the Bible. It was not taken out of the Book of Mormon, or any
other book, although it is the same organization that existed on the
earth in previous ages, brief accounts of which, in patches here and
there, may be found in the various books which compose the Bible. But
it was not taken out of that book. God Almighty revealed it. And the
authority which men exercise in the Church—the authority of the
Priesthood—did not come out of the bosoms or brains of men. It came by
direct manifestation from on high. Heavenly beings who were once
earthly beings, men who once lived on the earth holding that
authority, and who passed away and have progressed (call it evolution
if you please), have come back to the earth, and ordained men to the
same authority and Priesthood which they held. These men did not take
this authority upon themselves from reading the last chapter of
Matthew and Mark, in which we read that Jesus Christ sent out eleven
men and told them to go to all the world, and preach the Gospel in
His name. A great many “Christian” ministers have assumed the
authority given to those eleven men, and to no one else. Men who
held this authority in ancient times, on the earth, and have
gone into a higher sphere in the due course of their progression, by
divine commandment have come back to earth, and ordained men to the
authority and power and Priesthood which they held while they were in
the flesh. That is why we claim that the authority to administer in
the name of the Lord is in this church and in no other church on the
earth; that all other Priesthoods, so called, are spurious. We do not
say that there are not good men in other denominations, claiming to
hold authority to preach and administer in the name of the Lord; but
we claim that they have no authority in reality, because they
themselves have declared that all communication has been shut off from
the heavens for hundreds of years, and as there has been no
communication from the heavens for hundreds of years, no authority
could have been conferred, unless it was continuous, from the days of
the Apostles to the present day. But most of those persons who now
claim to hold authority from God to preach and to administer in the
ordinances of the Gospel, repudiate the idea that the authority was
continuous, and declare that after the days of the apostles, darkness
came in, that the world went astray, and that an abominable church
arose in the place of that which was established by Jesus and His
Apostles.

Now, this authority which has been sent down from God out of heaven,
is similar in its nature to that exercised by men about whom we read
in the Bible. We read about one in the patriarchal ages called
Melchizedek, who held this Priesthood. Abraham went and paid his
tithing to him after he came back from overcoming those kings that he
con-quered. Melchizedek, we are told, was the Prince of Salem, and he
was a Priest of the Most High God. And after many generations had
passed away, Jesus of Nazareth came upon the earth and claimed to have
that same Priesthood. He was called to be a Priest after the order of
Melchizedek, that is, He had the same kind of Priesthood that
Melchizedek had. We read a little about this Melchizedek, in the
Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, and about the Priesthood he held. Some
people in reading this confound the Priesthood or authority which
Melchizedek had with the man himself. They read it that he was
“without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life.” That is a curious kind of man, is
it not? Some people say that that meant Jesus himself. But that could
not apply to Jesus, for his descent is given in the Bible. He had a
reputed father, Joseph, and a real mother, Mary; and His Father in
heaven was His real Father; for we are told that He was the first
begotten in the spirit and the only begotten in the flesh. This, then,
did not apply to Jesus, nor did it apply to any other man; it applied
to the Priesthood or authority which Melchizedek held. The Priesthood
of Aaron or Levi, came by descent; it came to a man because he
belonged to a certain lineage; but this Melchizedek Priesthood did not
come by lineage; it came to all upon whom God pleased to bestow it.
Jesus was called to be a Priest forever, after the order of
Melchizedek, who was the Prince of Salem, a Priest of the Most High
God. Moses had this same Priesthood. He received it from Jethro.
There was another Priesthood in the days of Moses and Aaron, the
Levitical, which de-scended in a certain lineage from father to
son. But when Jesus came on the earth, He received the Melchizedek
Priesthood, and that He might receive it in its fullness, Moses and
Elias appeared to Him upon the mount of transfiguration. Jesus
conferred that same Priesthood upon the Apostles. “As my Father hath
sent me, even so send I you.” The same authority that Jesus had, He
conferred upon His Apostles, and they conferred it upon others, as
they were led by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, which Christ sent to
them after His departure.

Now, this Priesthood and Apostleship was held in the early Christian
Church. But the people put the Apostles to death. They put to death
other men who had been called to hold a position of this same
authority and Priesthood, and darkness came into the world, and the
people have gone down deeper and deeper into darkness, and further and
further away from God as generations have rolled on. They have heaped
to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they have turned away
their ears from the truth, and turned unto fables. The consequence is
that this Christian generation have departed from the power of God,
from the authority of God, and from the Priesthood of God, and as they
confess, “like sheep have gone astray.”

But in our day God has restored the old church back again. He has
restored the ancient Priesthood, the Priesthood that Moses had, that
Abraham had, that Jesus had, that the Apostles had, and that of which
Peter, James and John held the keys. God has restored it in the way
that I have mentioned—by the ministration of angels from the heavens.
The last named persons came down from on high and ordained men to the
Priesthood upon the earth, to wit, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery,
and they, inspired by the Almighty, dictated by the Holy Ghost, the
spirit of revelation, have called and ordained other men to the same
authority—to go out into the world and preach the everlasting Gospel,
and administer in the ordinances thereof. That is the power of this
Priesthood.

Does this authority give men any power to bind the souls of men? Not in
the least. Does it give men authority to coerce anybody in any shape,
form or manner? Not in the least. On the contrary, we are told in the
revelations of God, that the power of this Priesthood must not be used
to coerce, not to bind the souls of men. It must be by persuasion, by
declaration of the truth, by love unfeigned, by the inspiration that
attends it, by the manifestation of the power of God that goes with
it; it must be used in that way to convince those who hear and who are
instructed and directed. They who have this authority and influence
really have it in the power of God, and for the good and blessing and
benefit of their fellows, and not to coerce them. There is no coercion
or bondage in it. But some people will say, “Is there not some kind of
coercion in your political affairs? You seem to be united in your
voting, not only in your Church matters, but in your politics. How is
it that, when your people go to the polls, nearly all of them—you may
say all of them, for there are very few exceptions—vote the same
ticket?” Well, we hold conference twice a year, in April and October,
and upon these occasions the authorities of the Church—the President
of the Church, his Counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and all the
general authorities—are placed before the
people for their
vote. For let me tell you that in this Church there are two principles
combined—some people think they are opposite and cannot come together,
but we have proven in our experience that they can—and these are the
theocratic and the democratic principles. They are combined in this
organization—the voice of God and the will of the people, the response
of the people to that which God says. God commands, and the people
say, “We obey; we are ready to listen to the voice of God as it comes
from on high.” It finds an echo in every heart that is living under
the influence and spirit of this work, and the response comes, “I am
ready to receive it.” When the authorities of the Church are placed
before the people, it is very rarely that a contrary vote is seen. Are
the people obliged to lift up their hands when called upon to vote in
the affirmative? No. They can keep their hands down. They can either
vote for or against. That is their privilege; that is their right; it
is so recorded in the revelations of God to the Church. Why do they
generally—almost always—vote in the affirmative? Simply because they
are satisfied that the men who are called to occupy these various
positions are men of God, that they are fit for the positions, that
they are properly called and ordained, and that they are the right men
in the right place. That is the reason they vote in the affirmative.

The same spirit of unity exists among the people in every capacity. If
they are called upon to move somewhere else, they are ready to go.
They did this at the time the army was sent here. One of the most
foolish things the government ever did, was to send that army to Utah.
It came about in this way. There were certain judges sent here—we do
not always get the best kind of judges; sometimes they are very good
lawyers, and sometimes we have men that would be a disgrace to any bar
that might be named. Well, we had one of that kind at that time, or
just previous to that time, and he and his associates were very
corrupt. But because his corruptions were not looked upon favorably or
unconcernedly—particularly when the Chief Justice took a vile woman
upon the bench with him, a woman who had followed him when he came
here, leaving his wife behind—he ran away, went back to Washington,
and declared that the “Mormons” had burned the law library, purchased
by the government for the benefit of the courts here, and that Utah
was in a state of anarchy. Now, it is always unwise to judge from one
side of a question; unwise for us, unwise for anybody; both sides of
the question ought always to be heard before deciding, but the
government judged this question before investigating it. Solomon says:
“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and
shame unto him”—in other words he is a fool. The government was unwise
in taking the statements of this without hearing what the “Mormons”
had to say upon the question. Hence they sent out an army to put down
the “rebellious Mormons,” supposed to be in hostility to the
government. After a while they sent commissioners who found out that
all the statements made to the government, and which prompted the
sending out of that army, were utterly false in every particular. That
can be found on record, if people desire the proof, at Washington. And
then the government pardoned the “Mormons” for what they did, or
rather for what
they had not done. It was very magnanimous,
was it not? President Young was governor of the Territory, and the
first he heard about this army was that there was an armed mob coming
out to Utah, that they boasted they were going to hang the leaders of
this Church upon the trees in the mountains, and to take their wives
and do as they pleased with them. Well, they did not get here quite as
soon as they expected, because some of our brethren went into the
mountains to delay the matter for a little while, until it could be
investigated. But after a time the troops marched through the city and
camped at a place which is now known as Camp Floyd. Before the army
reached here, the people had been instructed that the best thing to do
was to leave the city and to move south, and to make preparations, if
necessary, to destroy their possessions, that they might not fall into
the hands of our enemies as they had done before; for this people
called Latter-day Saints, had been driven five times from their homes
because of their religion; not for polygamy, because when they were
thus driven, except in the case of Nauvoo, plurality of wives was not
a part of their creed. The revelation on plural marriage was given in
Nauvoo, July, 1843; hence the mobbings, drivings and plunderings to
which they had been subjected before that time were inflicted upon
them before they claimed to believe in that doctrine. As I have said,
they were driven five times from their homes. Many of them were
slaughtered; some of their wives were violated; little children were
butchered; houses were burned; stock shot down; standing grain was
destroyed; and the Saints were driven from their homes because of
their faith. Well, they made preparations when they left this place,
to set fire to it, and burn the whole thing, and the people moved
south in a body. That was unity, was it not? What was the cause of
such unity? President Young gave the word, and they were ready to
respond. But they were not obliged to do so. They could have stayed in
the city if they chose. There was an army coming. They could have been
protected by the army: but they made preparation to set fire to their
property, and went forth in a body. How did they come to act in that
kind of way? Because they were all moved upon by one common impulse.
The spirit that was in the head, was in the body, just as it is with a
healthy man. When the head dictates, the whole body responds, to the
very extremities, the feet and hands and every part; the whole body
thrills with the influence that comes from the head. That is how it
was in the Church. The head spoke and the whole body feeling the same
spirit, responded.

Now, there is just the same unity in our political matters. They are
managed as in other parts of the country. The people hold their
primaries or caucuses in the different precincts, and select men to
act as delegates to the County Convention. Or, if Territorial offices
are to be filled, the people select delegates to the Territorial
Convention, and when these men meet they take into consideration what
shall be for the best interests of the people, and who will be the
most likely men to fill the offices vacant, and when that Territorial
Convention makes up a ticket, the people are ready to accept it. If
that ticket should not happen to have upon it one or two names that
they would like to see there, they forego their private opin-ions in regard to individuals and unite together as a whole. Have
they not a right to do that? We think they have. But it is claimed
that the church men interfere. Well, they don't interfere. But suppose
they did. Suppose the Priesthood of this church or the Twelve Apostles
were to get up a ticket and tell the people that it was the best
ticket that could be made, have they any right to do that? I think
they have. I think the twelve men called Apostles, have just as much
right to get up a political ticket, if they please to do so, as twelve
lawyers, or twelve doctors, or twelve merchants, or twelve men who are
hunting for office, and if the people choose, of their own free will,
to go to the polls and vote that ticket, I think they have a right to
do so. But those very “liberal” folks who say we are in bondage, want
to make us vote as they think—“If you will only vote our ticket,”
they say, “it will be all right; but if you vote the People's Ticket,
or the church ticket, then you are slaves.” Well, I have not been
able to see the force of that, for the life of me, and I have looked
into the matter a good deal. It seems to me that I exercise just as
much volition or free will in voting for my friends, men of the same
faith, men of the same interests, men who have a stake in this
country, men whose interests are embodied here, men who are known, men
whose actions I have seen, men whose motives I to a great extent
understand by seeing their actions—I say I think I display as much
freedom in voting for such men as I would in voting for men I do not
like, men in whom I have no confidence.

This cry of bondage is simply got up for effect. There is no truth in
it. There is no man, there is no woman in Utah Territory, who is
obliged to vote this way, that, or the other way, and as a clear proof
of this the fact remains—a fact that cannot be gainsaid—that our
voting is entirely secret. Ballots may be made by anybody, people vote
just as they please; but the envelopes in which the ballots are
enclosed—furnished from the county authorities, uniform in size and in
color—must not be marked or defaced in any way. When the voter goes to
the polls, he or she—for the women here vote as well as the men; they
vote in church, they vote in state; they have the same freedom and
rights in these respects as man—he or she takes the ballot, with the
names on it for whom they choose to vote, and then put the ballot in
the envelope, which is handed to the judge, and no one can tell how
the ballot was cast. There is no chance of repeating here. That is why
some folks don't like our style of voting. There is no chance for
ballot stuffing.

Now, you may think this has nothing to do with religion. In our eyes
it has a great deal to do with it. We think that eating, drinking,
wearing clothes, and the performance of various temporal acts, as they
are called, are a part of religion, that is if they are done under a
religious spirit and influence. We desire to do right, to serve God,
and to keep from evil. That is religion. And I think that religion
ought to have a great deal to do with politics. I do not mean to say
that people should be compelled by religion or any other power to vote
or to refrain from voting; but I do think that religion should enter
into all the acts of life, in political as well as social matters;
religion should enter into all things; a religious influence should
have power over the minds of men for good.
Now, then, seeing there is a secret ballot, and nobody can
tell how a person votes, where can the coercion be? How are you going
to find out how this man or that woman voted, or how they did not
vote? You cannot do it. The fact remains, then, that there can be no
coercion in voting, even if it was desired. I refer to these things
this afternoon, in connection with the subject of our liberty, the
liberty which the people called Latter-day Saints claim, to worship
God or not worship Him; to perform any religious duty, or not perform
it; to do anything that is required of them, or to do the contrary; we
claim that liberty in church and in state, and in all things.

Now, some people have an idea that in this Church women are compelled
to be married! Just think of it for a moment, will you? How are you
going to manage that? How are you going to compel a woman to do
anything that she does not want to do? Such an idea as that must have
sprung up in the mind of someone who does not understand female
nature. It is preposterous. There is no such thing in this Church.
This Church is a church of liberty; that is, within the lines of the
law. If people take the liberty to do wrong, to transgress the laws of
God, to do that which is impure, they can be disfellowshipped—cut off
the Church; and that is the full extent of the power of penalty in
this Church—the power of excommunication, withdrawing fellowship,
making a person not a member; that is the extreme penalty of the laws
of the Church of Christ—excommunication. I think sometimes we have a
little too much liberty in this Church. People are allowed sometimes
to go on doing that which is wrong a little too long. People are
allowed to speak evil of their brethren too much. People are allowed
to find fault with men that are striving to do them good, and to do
the world good. I think sometimes when I look around and see what
transpires in this city, that there is a little too much liberty; not
that I would infringe upon the rights of any man or any woman; I would
give every man and every woman the privilege of doing that which they
pleased, so long as they did not interfere with my rights and the
rights of others. We do not feel at liberty to interfere with the
rights of our neighbors, nor to infringe upon the rights of anybody,
nor do we believe that anybody has a right to infringe upon our
rights. If they are infringed upon, we will stand up in self-defense
and seek legal redress. But our friends (?) on the outside, think we
ought not to be allowed that liberty. They say it is treason for us
to go into court to test the validity of a law passed against our
liberties! They claim this liberty themselves, but they are not
willing to accord the same liberty to us.

Again, we hear a great deal about a one-man power. Brother Goss
remarked some of the people where he has been laboring, were afraid to
investigate our principles themselves—they must first go and consult
with the priest. Well, we are not obliged to do that. We can
investigate anything we please on our own responsibility. But I must
admit that in Utah we have a one-man power, that is of the most
irksome character. We have in this Territory a Governor sent by the
authority of the powers that be at Washington, appointed by the
President of the United States by and with the consent of the Senate.
Now, in the first place we have no
vote for the President; we
have no vote, either directly or indirectly, for any Senator; we are
without representation at the seat of the general government. It is
true we are allowed to elect a Delegate to Congress; but he has no
vote. He can sit there and look on—like they say the fifth calf
did—but he has no vote. Well, we have no power in the election of the
President; we have no power in the election of any Senator; and these
persons holding their positions without any voice or vote or consent
of ours, sent a man here to act as our Governor, and they always
select, with scarcely an exception, somebody who has no interest here,
somebody who has nothing in common with the people; he comes here a
stranger. We elect twelve men to our Legislative Council, and
twenty-four men to our House of Representatives. These men understand
our wants, understand our circumstances, and they pass laws suitable
to our local needs, requirements and conditions. But this one man,
sent here without any consent of ours in any shape or form, by simply
withholding his signature, can make void and of no effect the labors
of the sixty days of those thirty-six men we have elected to make our
laws! “But,” says one, “I suppose you can pass the bill over his veto.”
No, sir. He has the power of absolute veto. He can cross out an Act
with his pen, or withhold his signature, and that is the end of it.
Well, then, we have a remarkable one-man power here, have we not? Yes;
but it is not of our choosing. It is not in accordance with the spirit
of our institutions. It is not a church matter. It is not “Mormon.” It
is anti-”Mormon,” anti-Republican, anti-American. It makes us to a
certain extent slaves, serfs, vassals. But that is not our fault;
Joseph Smith did not institute such a power; Brigham Young did not;
John Taylor does not enforce such a power; but we cannot help
ourselves.

I might go on and enumerate a great many other things that exist in
our midst, that are not of our choice. We pass laws for the
restriction or suppression of the liquor traffic. If we had our way we
would not have any liquor sold in any of our settlements. It might be
necessary, perhaps, in a city like Salt Lake City, where there is such
a mixed population, to make an exception, for we have no desire to
curtail the rights of anyone; but we have proved by experience that
prohibition in some places has been attended with good results. We
have tried the licensing system, and have found evil resulting
therefrom. The liquor traffic results in more police, more
drunkenness, more dissipation, and more licentiousness of every kind.
Our judges—who are sent to us in the same way as the Governor, without
any voice of ours—whenever they can get the chance (with but few
exceptions, a few honorable exceptions), to twist a word in favor of
the liquor sellers, will do it every time. In one of our cities,
recently, where prohibition was established, the liquor dealers tried
to establish themselves, and they were taken up and fined. They
appealed their case to the Supreme Court of the Territory, and because
the charter of that city said that the City Council should have power
to license, regulate, prohibit or restrain the manufacturers, sellers
or vendors of spirituous liquors and intoxicating drinks of every
kind, the majority of the Court decided that as the charter did not
say what the manufacturers, sellers, etc., were to be prohibited from
doing, the City Council could
not prohibit them from selling
liquor. That is the way the law can be twisted, and that is the way it
has been twisted over and over again, even in favor of licentiousness.
We would have no houses of ill fame if we had our way; but the courts
have ruled in their favor, as well as in the favor of liquor dealers.
That is the position we are in.

Well, if there is any bondage here, if there is any coercion here, if
we do not have the power of local self-government, which as free men
we have the right to enjoy; if we are not in the exercise of every
natural right, and every privilege that people should enjoy under the
Constitution and laws of this free country, it is not the fault of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is not the fault of
this people. In our Church there is liberty for all, and there is
liberty within our borders for those who do not belong to our Church,
those who do not believe as we believe, who do not see as we see. We
do not try to coerce them in the least degree. They can build their
chapels, churches and schools unmolested. They may worship an image if
they like, or a white dog, and they may do without worship at all, and
we will never infringe upon their rights. Liberty is a part of our
creed—liberty to all, liberty to every nation, kindred, tongue and
people. It is part of our faith that every individual has a perfect
right to worship God according to the dictates of his or her
conscience. We claim that right, and we are going to stand up for it,
quietly but firmly, by the help of God, and we expect to conquer some
day. We can wait; we can bide our time; we can suffer; we have
suffered over and over and over again. We have learned to be patient
under wrong; we have learned to submit to all kinds of indignities.
Our Elders who have been sent out to preach the Gospel have been
abused, derided, afflicted and tormented, some beaten with stripes,
sometimes tarred and feathered, and some of them have laid down their
lives for the truth. But we have learned to endure with patience, and
to take it as the lot that must fall to us as the followers of the
meek and lowly Jesus. Nevertheless, we are men and women, and we hope
someday, to be able to show to the nation and to the world, that we
are law-abiding men and women, men and women desiring to do right, to
serve God, and to keep every wholesome and constitutional law of the
land; that we are willing not only to labor for our own rights, but
for the rights of others; that we will contend inch by inch for those
rights under the constitution of our country, and in the spirit of the
Gospel, this perfect law of liberty which God has revealed to us. Our
influence and power will extend. Our unity will extend and become a
great power; we will contend for liberty to all, liberty to every man
and every woman under the canopy of heaven. That is our doctrine and
creed. God gave to man his agency in the beginning. We have the
liberty of choosing for ourselves. We have come into this Church of
our own free will and choice, because we believed its principles. I
can speak this for myself. I came into this Church because I believed
what was taught to me in my boyhood's days, and left my home for the
Gospel's sake. I came into this Church because I believed its
principles to be true and according to the Scriptures, which my mother
taught me, in my infancy, contained the word of God. I investigated
the principles of this Church thorough]y, and became con-vinced
of their truth, because I believed the Bible was true. And when I came
into the Church, I came in humbly; God knows, I came into this Church
for no other motive in the world than to serve God, and to do what was
right. And when the Elders laid their hands upon my head, I received
the Holy Ghost—the spirit of revelation, the spirit of prophecy, the
same that makes manifest the things of the Father and of the Son; I
know that I received that spirit, and it has been with me from that
time to the present—a light to my feet and a lamp to my path; a joy to
my soul; opening up the things of God; bearing witness of the truth of
this work; and that spirit has led me to righteousness, to truth, to
purity of character, and would rebuke me when I attempted to do
anything wrong, and encouraged me in performing my duty. And I have
ever been ready, with the rest of my brethren, to do anything and
everything I could to build up this work, because I know it is divine.

I know that there is no power beneath the eternal heavens that can
stop its progress. It will go on and conquer. It will grow and spread
and increase. It will go to the ut-termost parts of the earth. The
Gospel will be preached to every creature. The Saints of God will be
gathered, and there is no power can stop their gathering. They will
come to Zion, and build temples to the Most High God. They will unite
together, and build up the Zion of God, and prepare the way for the
coming of the Lord Jesus, whose right it is to reign; and every
kingdom, every government, every society and every power upon the face
of the earth that fights against Zion will become like the dream of a
night vision, it will pass away and there will be no place found for
it upon the earth. But Zion will arise and shine, and the glory of
God will rest upon her; and all the kingdoms of this world will become
the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. Then there will be liberty to
all. Then the chains and shackles that bind the oppressed will fall to
the ground, and light and truth will go forth until the whole earth is
immersed in the spirit thereof, and every nation, kindred, tongue and
people will sing praises to the Most High and to the Lamb forever.